Ugh, Aggies Get Hammered

I forgot to catch game 2 last night, but maybe I'm glad I didn't. Arizona State beats Texas A&M 11-0 to clinch the national championship.

Perhaps there were too many Hillary Clinton supporters on the Aggie squad and they were already down from Clinton finally coming up short at the end of primary season.

Hopefully, the Aggies will be back next year. Gig'em!

The Scott McClellan Tour Continues

Dan Froomkin has an excellent blog today that's a catch-all of Scott McClellan's recent appearances on tv and fallout from his book. On the latter, questions are arising again about Dick Cheney's role in the Valerie Plame leaking scandal. His capture of the O'Reilly Factor appearance is great. Here's the links to video of that interview: one, two, three.

Using Froomkin's references, the Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart: starts getting very good at the end of part one, and Stewart furthering the excellent points about the Bush White House deception in part two.

Letter to the New York Times

I'm on an anti-Thomas Friedman binge. Here's a letter I just wrote to the NYTimes. Wonder if it will get published. It's been awhile since one has (haven't written to them much lately anyway):

In his "It's All About Leverage" column, Thomas Friedman offers poor advice to Barack Obama in regards to dealing with other nations. Mr. Friedman calls for the U.S. acquiring leverage before it talks with anyone. Granted, it is nice to have leverage, but what making leverage a requirement for talks really means is being able to have the U.S. strong-arm other nations into doing what it wants. This reflects a diplomatic poverty. It is not a diplomacy where there is mutual respect and a desire to achieve an outcome to which both sides are genuinely agreeable and from which both sides benefit. Even without leverage, two sides should still be able to talk and be resourceful enough to achieve a diplomatic objective. Mr. Friedman's advice is not far off from the disastrous George W. Bush style of diplomacy: be able to force an outcome or don't deal at all. This style of diplomacy has engendered much anti-American resentment, and I hope this similar advice is ignored by Barack Obama should he become president.

Thomas Friedman Sums Up the Iraq War:

Here's the philosophy in all its nakednes of Thomas Friedman, the Suck on This video, as he's talking about the Iraq War rationale and who in general is such a homer for the U.S. and Israel and so anti-Arab.

Friedman's Diplomacy: Strong Arming

Thomas Friedman has a pretty distasteful Sunday column about how the U.S. should run its diplomacy. The U.S. should have some leverage before it talks with other nations, particularly Arab nations. Granted, it's nice to have leverage or an advantage when negotiating, but this does not reflect an attitude of each side gaining from the negotiations and thereafter some mutual respect being achieved. It's more about the U.S. being able to strong arm with whomever it deals. This only brings distrust and resentment from other nations. In essence, this has been what the Bush administration's foreign policy has been: being able to force an outcome or not do anything at all.

Aggies Lose Game 1

The Aggies get stymied by ASU's pitcher, 11 strikeouts. At least it's two out of three. Game 2 tonight.

Aggies in Championship

The Aggies have progressed to the final round in the softball college world series. They play Arizona State tonight to start a best of 3 series. It's on ESPN2 at 6pm. Whoop!